TED Talk with Ellen Johnson Sirleaf: How Women Will Lead Us To Freedom, Justice And Peace

    The resource above is a TED Talk given by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf who is the former President of Liberia and Africa's first democratically elected female president. Recognized as a global leader for women's rights, President Sirleaf was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2011 and was also being named one of Forbes's "100 Most Powerful Women in the World."

    In this video, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf promotes freedom, peace, justice, democratic rule and female leadership that could inspire women to play an important role in leadership positions and make changes for themselves as well as the others.

    Here are some quotes from the talk that I think are inspiring to women who aim to overcome gender biases and take leadership positions in order to participate in the process of decision-making.

“I knew that I had to form a very strong team with the capacity to address the challenges of our nation. And I wanted to put women in all top positions. But I knew that was not possible. And so I settled for putting them in strategic positions. I recruited a very able economist from the World Bank to be our minister of finance, to lead our debt-relief effort. Another to be the minister of foreign affairs, to reactivate our bilateral and multilateral relationships. The first woman chief of police to address the fears of our women, who had suffered so much during the civil war. Another to be the minister of gender, to be able to ensure the protection and the participation of women. Over time, the minister of justice, the minister of public works, the minister of agriculture, the minister of commerce and industry. Participation in leadership was unprecedented in my administration. And although I knew that there were not enough women with the experience to form an all-women cabinet -- as I wanted -- I settled to appoint numerous women in junior ministerial positions, as executives, as administrators, in local government, in diplomatic service, in the judiciary, in public institutions. It worked.”

“Although sub-Saharan Africa has had major breakthroughs in women's leadership and participation, particularly in the legislature -- in parliament, as it's called -- so many women, 50 percent and over, one of our nations, well over 60 percent, the best in the world -- but we know that's not enough. While we must be very thankful and applaud the progress we have made, we know that there is much more work to be done. The work will have to address the lingering vestiges of structural ... something against women. In too many places, political parties are based on patronage, patriarchy, misogyny that try to keep women from their rightful places, that shut them out from taking leadership positions. Too often, women face -- while the best performers, while equal or better in competence -- unequal pay. And so we must continue to work to change things. We must be able to change the stereotyping. We must be able to ensure that those structural barriers that have kept women from being able to have the equity they rightfully deserve. And we must also work with men. Because increasingly, there is recognition that full gender equity will ensure a stronger economy, a more developed nation, a more peaceful nation. And that is why we must continue to work. And that is why we're partners.”